TORONTO — Brian Burke may expect people to believe that he has not talked to, is not talking to, and, just as importantly, will not talk to teams around the league to gauge interest in Mark Messier.

The problem for the Vancouver GM, who last year said that getting the since- bought-out veteran Dave Gagner was the key to the Pavel Bure trade, is that The Captain does not seem to among those convinced.

Indeed, sharing the opinion held by virtually everyone outside Burke’s inner sanctum, Messier appears to expect the Canucks to evaluate their options as the March 14 trade deadline approaches. He expects to be asked whether he’d be willing to waive his no-trade contract.

“It’s important for both me and the team to do what’s right for the franchise,” No. 11 said here yesterday. “There are important issues to be addressed.

“I’ll be very open and honest about my situation if I’m given the opportunity to do what’s best. There’s been a lot of [negative] stuff that’s happened to this organization the last three years, so it’s important to me that whatever arises as far as my situation, that it’s handled the right way.”

The situation concerning Messier, who turned 39 last month and will appear this afternoon in his 14th All-Star Game, is that this is the final guaranteed season on the contract he signed as an unrestricted free agent in July 1997, with the Canucks by June 30 obligated to either extend the contract for another $6 million next year or pay The Captain a $2M going-away present.

The situation regarding Burke’s Canucks is that they’re terrible again, have, notwithstanding the drafting of the Sedin twins, made a series of poor personnel decisions, have lost credibility with their community, and have no reason whatsoever to keep a 39-year-old man for the final month of the season if they could both get a prospect back for him and get out from under the contract.

Burke would be derelict in his duty if he were not pursuing a trade for Messier. Players with no-trade clauses are traded all the time; there’s a price that must be paid for the clause to be overridden, but it happens all the time. And, Burke must certainly be aware, interest must investigated first, before a player is asked whether he’d be willing to waive his no-trade.

Messier may well insist that any team trading for him now would guarantee his contract for next season. He may not, not if he’s smitten with the situation — for argument sake, let’s say, Dallas or St. Louis — but there’s going to be a price he’s paid for agreeing to move at the deadline.

Of course, though, Burke insists he’s not even considered trading Messier, who can still play and who can still lead. If Burke is to be believed, he is guilty of malfeasance. If Burke is to be believed, someone should alert Messier.

THE trade talk here this weekend that has Slap Shots’ ears burning: the Devils’ aggressive pursuit of the great Teemu Selanne. Sources have informed us that Anaheim is apparently now willing to deal the remarkable sniper in exchange for a package to bolster its ridiculously thin team.

Really, there’s hardly been anything more criminal over the last five years than Disney’s refusal to give Selanne and Paul Kariya the support they needed and deserved. (Well, other than Spano, Milstein and Gluckstern, that is.)

The Mighty Ducks, however, are believed insisting on way more than Brendan Morrison, Denis Pederson and Lyle Odelein. Selanne, by the way, will earn $8M next year and $9.5M in 2001-2002.

But that’s OK; he and Derek Jeter can party together.

DOMINIK Hasek, now saying he can play once a week while he recovers from his groin problems, is, we’re told, trying to force his way out of Buffalo. Sources have told us that the Flyers have talked to the Sabres about Hasek, with the names Simon Gagne and Daymond Langkow having been raised as components going the other way. If the Flyers do not pursue Hasek, who is scheduled to earn $7.5M next year and $9M in two years, they’re expected to take a shot at Nikolai Khabibulin, Phoenix’s unsigned Group II currently toiling for the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs.

The Sharks, who blundered badly by trading away Mike Vernon, thus heaping far too much responsibility on Steve Shields, have interest in John Vanbiesbrouck. If the Flyers keep the Beezer, San Jose may turn to Montreal, which is looking to move Jeff Hackett.

YOU MAY want to sit down for this one. At the All- Star break, the team that leads the league in rookie goal-scoring is none other than … the RANGERS!!!!!

Yes, friends, the freshman dotting the Grey Brigade have scored 32 goals, 17 from Mike York, 10 from Jan Hlavac, and five from Kim Johnsson. Vancouver rookies are second with 24 goals, with Nashville and the Devils getting 22 apiece from their first-year men.

Maybe no matter what price Neil Smith had been willing to pay, the Rangers were never going to get Pavel Bure from Vancouver. Maybe Burke was never going to risk sending Bure to Broadway, which was, until his trade to South Beach, always his first choice of address.

But if the deal that Smith rejected would have gotten it done, the question is posed. Are the Rangers better off not having traded Dan Cloutier, Niklas Sundstrom, Manny Malhotra and a first-rounder for Bure, given that they traded Cloutier, Sundstrom and a No. 1 for Pavel Brendl?

Are the Rangers better off, now and for the future, with Brendl and Malhotra than they would be with Bure … and with Wayne Gretzky, who surely would have played this season had the Russian Rocket be sent to Manhattan?